Travel News: November 27, 2017

Under Decision 1861/QĐ-TTg, the VND30 trillion (US$1.32 billion) program will focus on building and upgrading tourism and transport infrastructure at provinces with key tourist destinations listed in the “Strategy on Vietnam’s tourism development until 2020, vision to 2030” approved by the Government.

The program will give priority to poor provinces, whose budget cannot afford the investment.

The program will also strive to have the infrastructure of three to five national tourist areas to be perfected by 2020, contributing to creating favorable conditions for tourists as well as attracting domestic and foreign investment.

Under the “Strategy on Vietnam’s tourism development until 2020, vision to 2030”, Vietnam will develop tourism to be a key economic industry with high professionalism, modern and fairly synchronously-developed tourist infrastructure; high quality, competitive and diversified tourist products imprinted with unique traditional cultural characteristics.

Celebrity Cruises is riding the next wave of industry developments into the future of the expedition market.

Its next Celebrity Flora new-build may be small, but it means big things for the Galapagos and potentially beyond.

Before the vessel was announced, the premium line’s expedition product consisted of three acquired craft—recently expanded from the Xpedition alone to also include the Xperience and Xploration. Meanwhile, it aimed high to an overall fleet led by the fresh Celebrity Edge by December 2018.

Indonesian authorities raised the alert for a rumbling volcano to the highest level on Monday and closed the international airport on the tourist island of Bali, stranding thousands of travelers.

Mount Agung has been hurling ash thousands of feet into the atmosphere since Saturday, which had already forced the small international airport on the neighboring island of Lombok to close as the plumes drifted east.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said Bali’s international airport, where most flights had been continuing, was closed for 24 hours. It said authorities would consider reopening it Tuesday after evaluating the situation.

Japanese culture is often close to home for Americans, whether it’s at a sushi or ramen restaurant, a karaoke bar, a karate studio, Hello Kitty items in the local toy store, anime, origami, samurais, or geishas in movies and pop cultureBut the Japanese language can cause anxiety for some American travelers who might perceive the country as a difficult place to visit.

The Japan National Tourism Organization, the country’s tourism board, however, feels Dale Talde, a Filipino-American chef with TV credits on “Top Chef” and restaurants in New York City and Miami, and other chefs are the universal language in its marketing arsenal that will speak to Americans’ growing appetites for Japanese cuisine.

Earlier this month, the tourism board launched a campaign aimed at U.S. travelers that features Talde in three short videos cooking his original recipes using Japanese ingredients. Viewers are encouraged to vote for their favorite recipe through February 28, and the grand prize winner will win a round-trip coach airfare to Japan for two.

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By: Matt Long

Matt has a true passion for travel. As someone who has a bad case of the travel bug, Matt travels the world in order to share tips on where to go, what to see and how to experience the best the world has to offer.
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